World Wrestling Entertainment close on purchasing WCCW tape library
On Thursday, August 4, 2005 at 3:04 PM EST It is being reported that World Wrestling Entertainment is nearing completion of a deal to purchase the tape libraries of the former World Class Championship Wrestling organization.
Kevin Von Erich, the last surviving member of the family that ran WCCW, currently owns the entire tape library of the organization. WWE right now is in the process of going through all of the footage present and examining the quality before they make their final offer. Von Erich himself had spoken with Jim Ross in Stamford, CT several months back about WWE purchasing the footage.
Von Erich himself released a "Best of the Von Erichs" DVD last year which featured WCCW footage. He had planned to eventually make more DVD releases using the footage.
It is not known as of now the extent of footage the tape library itself holds. Von Erich had claimed in recent years that the library contained everything that was ever filmed of World Class, as well as footage going back several years of Texas wrestling events promoted by his father, the late Fritz Von Erich.
As for a little background on the company, World Class Championship Wrestling was a widely successful company in the early-mid 1980s, promoted out of Dallas, TX. Widely regarded as one of the company's biggest events was the David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions event at Texas Stadium on May 6, 1984. The event featured a main event where Kerry Von Erich defeated Ric Flair for the NWA World Championship.
Many stars worked the promotion at one time over the years, and many got their start with WCCW. Some of the stars included: the Von Erich family, the Freebirds, Chris Adams, Rick Rude, and the Dingo Warrior (later to become the Ultimate Warrior).
Credit: Mike Johnson @ PWInsider.com